Sustainable Futures through Democratic Design: Towards Community-led Democratic Localism in Rathlin Island

This report summarises learning from activities that took place on or in relation to Rathlin Island, Northern Ireland, through a funded academic project exploring the island’s sustainable futures using the lens of democratic design. Rathlin Island has a history of experimentation in relation to democratic involvement of citizens in public policy, including appreciative inquiry and visual minuting, which the report summarises. As an island, Rathlin reveals in sharp focus some of the challenges facing all societies about how to negotiate sustainability
transitions while also maintaining a viable economy and equitable, liveable community. Building on this, between 2023-25, a team of academics and practitioners in the Future Island- Island (FI-I) project funded by the UK Arts and
Humanities Research Council (AHRC)’s Green Transition Ecosystem programme, were supported to come together to explore, develop, examine and make sense of the possibilities for sustainable futures for Northern Ireland, through the lens of Rathlin Island as a place-based collaborator and teacher. This was carried out in close dialogue with the Rathlin Development and Community Association, the body that represents the Rathlin community and lobbies for improvements to services and infrastructure. The team carried out analysis of the current disjointed policy context and worked with island residents through a structured deliberative process, or democratic mini-public, to explore the future of the ferry service they are utterly dependent on, paying attention to how this process was designed and facilitated. The project’s learnings are firstly on the level of process – how to do democratic deliberation and policy design with a small community on an island, rooted in their world, perspectives and priorities. Secondly, the report shares policy implications relevant to Rathlin’s Island’s sustainable futures of relevance to policy officials and decision-makers with responsibility for Rathlin’s future in the Northern Ireland Executive and the UK Government and beyond. It concludes with recommendations related to the future ferry service for Rathlin and to democratic design towards sustainable transitions, both intended to share insights with wider publics. In summary, this report lays out an approach to doing democratic localism in which lived experience, local expertise and co-design are central to democratic policy development, cutting across traditional silos of government.